BUFFALO, NY— As home to the General Mills cereal company, Buffalo is where all Wheaties and Cheerios are made. The Broncs sure looked like they could have used some Wheaties, the ‘Breakfast of Champions’, on Wednesday, and were not too cheery after their loss at Canisius.

The Broncs lost a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game at Canisius Wednesday afternoon. “This is always a tough place to play,” said Rider head coach Drayson Hounsome, “and once we fell behind 2-0 we were chasing the game.”

Rider (4-4, 1-1 MAAC) cut the lead to 2-1 in the 69th minute of play when senior Jennifer Meier (Sayville, NY/St. Anthony’s) scored her team-high fifth goal of the season and the 23rd of her career. “Jenn scored a good goal,” Hounsome said.

Meier’s goal came from 20 yards out and just grazed the cross bar. “She picked up a loose ball and dribbled past two people before she shot with her left foot,” Hounsome said.

Canisius (3-7-1, 1-1 MAAC) jumped out to a 1-0 lead with a goal on a penalty kick just seven minutes into the game. “We gave them a penalty early,” Hounsome said.

The Griifs took a 2-0 lead in the 40th minute of play when the ball was chipped over the head of the Bronc defender and the Canisius forward, Mallory Illsley, beat Rider keeper freshman Bethany-May Howard (Glastonbury, England/Bridgwater College) to the ball. “We gave them a second goal on a poor defensive play,” Hounsome said.

Howard made two saves in the first half. Rider freshman goalkeeper Vanessa Perdomo (Hillsborough, NJ/South Brunswick) made two saves in the second half.

“Both keepers did fine for us,” Hounsome said.

Rider out-shot Canisius 16-14. “It was a close game,” Hounsome said. “I felt it was an even game, but it is tough to come back from a two-nil deficit on the road. It was too much for us to overcome.”

Rider is now 8-9-1 against Canisius, including a 3-0 Rider victory last year in Lawrenceville. Over the last six seasons, however, Rider is just 2-5 against the Golden Griffs, including a 1-0 loss in the 2010 MAAC playoffs.

Rider plays a MAAC game at Quinnipiac Saturday. “It is going to be a short turnaround,” Hounsome said. “We get home early tomorrow (Thursday) morning and then we head to Quinnipiac Friday afternoon. We had some players injured today so we’re going to try to manage some of them.”